The BPIF is delighted to congratulate Benson Group as the world's first company to gain independent certification under the BPIF ISO 12647-2 Scheme.

The BPIF is leading the development of a UK Certification scheme for ISO12647-2, knowing that as in earlier Quality and Environmental Standards, buyers will expect auditing and certification from UKAS accredited certification bodies. In response to such customer demands, a growing number of UK printing companies are working to this standard, but at present they cannot gain a certificate from a certification body accredited by UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) to evidence this. For this reason the BPIF engaged UKAS in discussions last year and at the same time set up a Working Group to develop scheme requirements. This was welcomed by UKAS and the Scheme requirements document was published in February (available from the BPIF [email protected]). 

Working to meet the exacting standards of the BPIF Scheme and anticipating the requirements of UKAS, Benson Group has been certified by Print and Media Certification Ltd (PMC), the first certification body to audit against the BPIF Scheme using the approach set out by international certification body standards.

Andrew Brown, Corporate Affairs Director at the BPIF added "We wish to congratulate Benson Group as the first company to meet the requirements of the BPIF ISO12647-2 Scheme. They will be joined by a fast growing community of printers that know that this is the only clear and effective way to demonstrate not only that they can print to ISO12647-2 but crucially, that they have the systems in place to sustain that standard, and that it has been rigorously assessed by an accredited and independent third party. We also want to welcome the efforts of PMC to introduce certification of the BPIF Scheme rapidly in anticipation of the UKAS accreditation that will follow. What is also very encouraging is to note the clear production cost benefits already gained by Benson Box."

PMC Director Jon Stack said: "We are delighted to issue the first certificate for the BPIF ISO12647-2 scheme and to congratulate Benson Group on their achievement, and welcome the support we have received from BPIF for our audit scheme. We have developed an audit system for this scheme which is designed to meet the international standards for certification bodies, and this is the first time this has been attempted for ISO12647-2 in the world, as far as we know,. The difference to other certifications for ISO12647-2 is that our approach is one of a third party, completely independent and impartial, with no conflicts of interest, and the accreditation we will be seeking from UKAS will demonstrate that this is the case. It is only through UKAS accredited certification that customers of the industry can have full confidence in the validity of a claim of ISO12647-2 compliance, when it is made to them by a printer or print manager."

Commenting on his company's award, Benson Group Managing Director, Mark Kerridge said: "We are of course delighted to be the first print-based business in the world to be awarded an independently assessed ISO12647-2 certification. Whilst the journey has taken us over two years, our team has learned a great deal about the whole process along the way. We have enjoyed working with the people from BPIF, and whilst it has been a long and challenging process, it has been one that has further raised the standards across our press room. It has provided a positive impact in many different areas of production, including job make-ready times, reduced wastage, consistency of colour, reduced press pass time, and an increased confidence when talking to customers about colour quality issues."

Adding further thoughts from Benson Group, Mike Owens, General Manager, said: "We have been particularly impressed with the overall consistency that ISO12647-2 has helped us to achieve. We have also been pleasantly surprised by the impact that it has had on certain areas of production: for example, we have seen a significant reduction in waste, which has an obvious environment benefit, as well as helping us to keep an ever tighter control over production costs. It has also had a positive impact on the time taken for a customer to approve a job whilst on press. As an excellent example of this, a recent customer visit resulted in 13 press passes in one single day; something that would simply not have been possible without the print quality focus provided by ISO12647-2. It helps to make sign-off a faster and more straightforward process when the customer is comparing the approved GMG produced proof to the actual on-press print."